ROOTOFNEGATIVE

The ROOTOFNEGATIVE option determines the result of any attempt to obtain a root of a negative number.

Data type

BOOLEAN

Syntax

ROOTOFNEGATIVE = YES|NO

Arguments

YES: Allows any attempt to obtain a root of a negative number. This means that a statement that attempts to obtain a root of a negative number will execute without an error; however, the result of the attempt to obtain the root will be NA. When you are working with a dimensioned variable or expression, setting ROOTOFNEGATIVE to YES enables you to obtain the root of most of the expression's values when a few of the values might be negative.
NO: (Default) Disallows any attempt to obtain a root of a negative number. Any statement that attempts to obtain a root of a negative number will stop executing and an error message will be produced.

Notes

Raising to a Noninteger Power

Raising a number to a noninteger power (for example, 5 ** 0.3 or 14 ** 2.7) is an attempt to obtain a root.

Examples

Example 23-7 The Effect of ROOTOFNEGATIVE

The following example shows the effect of changing the value of the ROOTOFNEGATIVE option. The variable TESTNUMBER has a value of -56. When you execute a SHOW statement such as the following one, without changing the ROOTOFNEGATIVE option from its default value of NO, an attempt is made to obtain the square root and then an error message is produced.

SHOW SQRT(testnumber)

When you change ROOTOFNEGATIVE to YES, the same statement executes without error

ROOTOFNEGATIVE = YES
SHOW SQRT(testnumber)

and produces the following result.

NA